Around 75 actors have played the part in over 211 films, but we've narrowed our shortlist to the most well-known and well-loved. Vote in our poll below to let us know your favorite!

Our shortlist includes Basil Rathbone from the 1939 to 1946 14-film series, Jeremy Brett in Granada Television's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from 1984 to 1994 and Peter Cushing, who played the detective in Hammer's 1959 The Hound of the Baskervilles before moving on to the BBC's 1960s Sherlock Holmes.

We've also got Charlton Heston in 1991 TNT movie The Crucifer of Blood, James D'Arcy in 2002 TV movie Sherlock: Case of Evil, Christopher Plummer in 1979's Murder by Decree, and the two Holmes of the moment - Benedict Cumberbatch in the BBC's Sherlock and Robert Downey Jr in Guy Ritchie's movies.